The acclaimed Irish novelist Colm Tóibín first read James Baldwin when he was just 18 years old. He had just completed his first year at an Irish university and was struggling to comprehend his religious upbringing as part of his life. He had at one time considered joining the seminary. In literature, he searched for some kind of insight to help him figure out his perplexing questions about identity.
Once he encountered the work of James Baldwin, Tóibín found that he had also struggled to answer difficult questions in his own private life.
As a gay Black man, Baldwin knew about guilt and rage and the ways that the United States was a place of displacement for the marginalized.
Tóibín soon surmised that being gay and Black were not the only differences Baldwin contended with. The very nature of his talent set him apart, too.
On James Baldwin is Colm Tóibín's personal appreciation of James Baldwin, one of our greatest contemporary writers.
